Chair construction comprising a base and a chair frame resiliently suspended therefrom



2,570,000 R FRAME Oct. 2, 1951 H. E. LOWRY CHAIR CONSTRUCTION COMPRISING A BASE AND A CHAI RESILIENTLY SUSPENDED THEREFROM 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 12, 1948 I J T v Mi H/BEET Lot W856.

INVENY'OR.

2,570,000 RAME Oct. 2, 1951 H. E. LOWRY CHAIR CONSTRUCTION COMPRISING A BASE AND A CHAIR F RESILIENTLY SUSPENDED THEREFROM 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 12, 1948 Hues/er Low/2v,-

; INVENTOR.

IQTTOENEY.

Patented Oct. 2, 1951 CHAIR CONSTRUCTION COMPRISING A BASE AND A CHAIR FRAME RESILIENTLY SUS- PENDED THEREFROM Hubert E. Lowry, Gardena, Calif.

Application June 12, 1948, Serial No. 32,600

3 Claims.

This invention relates to an improved construction of upholstered chairs, divans, love seats and the like and is particularly directed to improvements in the construction of upholstered chairs and chair frames wherein the seat is yieldingly suspended for limited vertical and horizon tal movement.

Most pieces of upholstered furniture are re1atively immovable in that the seat and back do not give or move with the motions of the occupant. Most upholstered chairs, for example, have a seat frame in a fixed position and although the seat is upholstered and contains springs or other yielding materials, such seat will not change its general plane when occupied by people of different weight, leg length, etc. Most upholstered chairs, moreover, fail to support the average adult in the region of the lower thigh in back of the knee. Furthermore, the construction of upholstered chairs as customarily used permits the frontal portion of the seat to be readily crushed and broken under the weight of the body, this part of the chair showing signs of wear within a very short period of time.

The present invention is directed to a construction which obviates and eliminates the prior difficulties. In the first place, the construction here contemplated permits adjustment so that the plane of the seat may be changed in accordance with the body weight and leg length of the most frequent occupant of such chair. Secondly, the construction herein disclosed permits a limited yielding movement, both vertically and in a horizontal plane, without rocking, the limited horizontal movement creating a feeling of comfort and satisfaction which can not be obtained in a normal, stationary chair.

Furthermore, the present invention eliminates the necessity of employing a number of springs beneath the chair. In certain prior constructions springs have been placed beneath the seats of chairs, the yielding action being attained by the compression of such springs. This is disadvantageous inasmuch as a definite end point is soon reached and when a large or heavy person occupies the chair, the movement of the chair seat does not end in a yielding manner but instead the downward movement of the chair seat, under the weight imposed thereon, comes to a sudden and abrupt stop when the spring is collapsed, thereby losing all of the eifect which was initially desired.

In the present construction, the chair seat is actually suspended from springs which expand when a weight is imposed upon the seat, and a soft and yielding effect is obtained irrespective of the weight of the occupant.

Generally stated, the present invention contemplates a construction in which a rigid seat frame and back frame, in a fixed position with respect to each other, are suspended from stationary supports, one on each side of the seat frame, said supports extending to above the nor mal plane of the seat frame. Spring. means having their upper ends connected to the stationary support and their lower ends to the seat frame. are used to yieldingly support the seat. Horizontal movement of the seat may be completely elimlnated or it may be permitted within limits in accordance with variations of the construction employed. The undue compression or breaking of the upholstery covering the frontal area of the seat pad is prevented by providing a rigid seat frame having an enlarged front transverse member extending both above and below the plane of the seat frame.

It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to disclose and provide an improved upholstered furniture construction.

Another object is to disclose and provide an upholstered chair construction wherein the seat is yieldingly suspended for vertical movement.

A still further object of the invention is to dis-' close and provide an improved upholstered chair construction wherein the seat and back are yieldingly suspended from stationary supports extending upwardly on each side of the seat to a plane above the normal plane of the seat.

A still further object of the invention is to disclose and provide an improved chair construction wherein the seat, back and arms of a chair Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along the plane II-II of Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken along the plane IIIIII of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 1 illustrating another embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 5 is a partial sectional view taken along the line V--V of Fig. 6.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken along the plane VIVI of Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary view taken along the plane VIIVII of Fig. 5.

Referring to the drawings, one preferred construction is illustrated by Figs. 1, 2, and 3, inclusive, and in order to carry out an article having the desired sspring construction, I provide a frame consisting of a seat and back, which are made rigid to one another. The back, referred to generally as H], and seat II constitute the main part of the chair and may be providedwithany conventional upholstering l2for'. the back and 13 for the seat. The purpose here is to so suspend the supporting structure as to give freely in response to the movement of a personsitting in the chair. This is accomplished by suspending the seat and back of the chair from the side arms.

The side arms here illustrated as I6 and H may be hollow. In the embodiment in Figs. 1, 2, and B ithere may be provided fore and afttransverse members I8 and lsbeneath-the seat,.the end portions extending into the confines of .thelside arms l6 and I1, The endsof these transversely extending spaced members lBand t8: are ported to freely receive the lower threaded ends of rods provided withadjustmentwing nuts .1, the upper ends of the rods being connected tothe lower endsof vertically disposed coil springs B and 9, the'upperends of the springs being firmly connectedtothetop member of the -arm panels.

It :has. been found by experience that when thezsupporting portions of a chair, divan, or the like, comprising the seat and the back support,

are; made rigid-and suspended so as to give simultaneously one with the other, greater comfort is afforded than when thereis relative movement between the seat portion and the back portion. Moreover, most all chairshave springs of some sort of construction directly beneath the-seat; the springs either become distorted "onaccount of use orbreak-and-thereby.failito support the seat eVenly. I have found thatif the seat and back are made rigid andsuspendedasma unit the chair can be adjustedto a desired angle by nuts 7 and will gi-ve more naturally and respond to pressure-thereon in both vertical and to some :ex tent in a horizontaldirection.

,The arrangement -,of vertiealsprings so that their upper ends are-fixedto a' support above .the plane. of vthe seatjprovidesa supportthat hasa resiliency which gives comfortably to the pressure of the weight of the personwithout. a limit or, stop imposed by the seat frame-zooming. into contact with afixed stop. I have found that this manner of supporting the ;chair,;zdivan,; or the like, affords comfort and restfulness not possessed of chairs or div-ansprovidedw-ith the con-- ventional coil springs.

It will be noted that the form of, the'chairiillustrated by Figs. 1, 2, and-3, inclusive, is supported by vertically disposed coil springs, the. weight of to 7, inclusive. The frame of the seat and back may be identical to that shown at If] and H in the embodiment just described, with the side.

arms [6 and i! fixedrigid therewith. I mount this structure including the back, .seat andside 4 arms on a supporting base 2 I. The structure including the seat, back and side arms is preferably supported from the base by means of a substantially U-shaped member 23, having upstanding legs which may be T shaped, as clearly illustrated in Figs. 4 and 6. These upstanding legs of member 23 extend into the hollow arm panels 16 and I! :andthe horizontal T portions 24 are above thetplane of the seat frame-but spaced below and out of contact with the top elements of the hollow arm panels. The upper horizontal .member 24 carried by each upper end of each leg of the U-sh'apedmember may have its ends conwith the person occupying the'seat, floats asa unit and makes possible a relaxing comfort not afforded by separately supported seat -back and arms In carrying out this-last featureit-is of primary importance that a stationary base-2i support all portions ofthe structure in whicha user may rest. If the-supportingba-sefll is provided with supporting'arms, as indicated at 23,

the latter having supporting portions located within the confines of the arm rest, a person reclining in a chair may find comfort and relaxation in any direction whichhemay-desire-to repose.

of chairs, divans, love seats-and-the-Hka-Wherein the seat, the back and the arm rest are suspended for a sufficient, limited, vertical and horizontal movement, as may be .desired by a:: user; While it is of primary importancethatthmseat and back of a chair move'in unison it. may be-dee sired in some struc'tures'thatthe armerest move accordingly, the combined features jjust men-. tioned may be accomplished; by 'theiprovisi'on of a supporting base having means attachedthereto to fioatably'mount the entire contacting-.par-t of a chair, including the seat,-back,.-and sidearmsa As mentioned above, it is importantthat the springs extend from a .pointbelowtthe supporta ing surface of theseat to'apointabove the-said;

surface.

. Another important featureof the present.

vention is the manner. in which the chairis constructed in order to support'the forwardportion of the seat. In almostzallthe conventionalchair, divan, etc., constructions, .thelforward portion of the seatis-subjec-ted'to usage which tends; to distort the front of the chair. I'haveovercome this by providing a .transverseimemberfllwhich extends-the lengthrof the.forward portion-of the seatframe. .Thismember 31 preferably should extend below the .plane of the seat framerand to a point above theseatf-rame 'soasto give the front portion of the upholstered :seat- 32 additional support.

such furniture .does not only maintain its :shape over a long period of time, but is more 'c'omfo'r ta ble in use.

The provision of the T-ishapedclegs' o'f the fl- 1 shaped member 23 gives :to that portion of the Accordingly, there'is provided a construction By providing this transverse: member, which is raised as :comparcd to theiother portions of the-seat frame,.-Ii have found that structure suspended from the springs a flexible characteristic not found in other spring-suspended structures known to me. Moreover, a considerable degree of rocking characteristics may be effected by either of the structures illustrated in the drawings. The springs such as 25 are preferably downwardly and outwardly directed as shown in Fig. 6, and enhance the rocking motion.

The above structures described are simple, rugged, eflicient, durable and may be produced comparatively cheaply and yet may be embodied in the most expensive furniture.

While I have illustrated and described certain forms of the present device, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that certain changes, modifications, additions, omissions and substitutions may be made in the forms here shown without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. The combination with a chair frame comprising: a pair of hollow arm panels, a seat frame and a back frame connecting said arm panels; of a fixed base including a pair of upstanding supports, one of said supports extending into each of said hollow arm panels to above the plane of the seat frame; and spring means carried by each of the supports and connected to the chair frame for yieldably suspending the chair frame,

including said arm panels, seat frame and back frame, from said supports.

2. A combination of the character stated in claim 1, wherein each of said upstanding supports is in the form of a T, and the spring means comprises a pair of laterally spaced springs in each arm panel. one being connected to each arm of said T.

3. The combination defined in claim 1 wherein each of said upstanding supports includes a forwardly and rearwardly extending element terminating in spaced relation to vertical portions of the hollow arm panels. and said spring means are carried at the ends of each element.

HUBERT E. LOWRY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,720,485 Leipert July 9, 1929 1,979,892 Loefiler Nov. 6, 1934 2,133,747 Hunter Oct. 18, 1938 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 485,887 Great Britain May 26, 1938 531,269 Great Britain "Jan. 1, 1949 

